Yankees dealt another blow with Tulowitzki injury
NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees added to their list of hurt players Wednesday afternoon, when shortstop Troy Tulowitzki left in the middle of the team's 2-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers with a strained left calf.
They placed Tulowitzki on the 10-day injured list Thursday morning and recalled Thairo Estrada from Triple-A.
The Yankees currently have 11 players from their 40-man roster on the injured list, the most of any team in baseball.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described Tulowitzki's injury as "low grade." Boone said he wasn't sure when the injury occurred.
It was in the fourth inning when Tulowitzki, who was coming back in 2019 from foot and ankle issues after missing all of last season, was removed from the game and taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital for further testing. He had not returned to Yankee Stadium by the time the clubhouse opened for postgame interviews.
Backup infielderTyler Wademight have been the first to know anything was wrong with the shortstop.
"He just came right to me and said: 'Get loose,'" said Wade, Tulowitzki's eventual replacement.
After Wade entered the game, he finished it playing second base. Gleyber Torres moved from second base to short.
Wade, who was called up earlier this week when third baseman Miguel Andujar (small labrum tear) went to the IL, wasn't sure exactly when Tulowitzki made the comment to him in the Yankees' dugout. But he knew it came after Tulowitzki's only plate appearance.
During that at-bat, Tulowitzki popped up to second base to end the second inning. The half-inning before, he had fielded a ground ball, which required him to throw to first on the run.
"I got to step up," Wade said. "That's why I was brought here; was for injuries. I've got to step up in big situations and help this team out when we're down."
Tulowitzki has appeared in five games and is sporting a .182 average (2-for-11). He has one double and one home run, his first hits in the big leagues since July 2017.
The Yankees signed Tulowitzki in January after he rehabbed both feet following surgery to both heels last year. They were impressed with workouts he held near his home in Southern California and considered the former Blue Jays and Rockies infielder to be fully healed.
"We'll pick ourselves up," Boone said. "The major league season is a gantlet filled with adverse situations all the time that come in many shapes and sizes throughout the year, even in the best of seasons.
"We feel a little adversity here with some of the injuries we're dealing with, but I'll hang my hat on our group and that we'll fight our way through this, and we'll get it rolling."
Estrada could provide middle-infield relief if the Yankees have to lean more heavily on Torres, Wade and DJ LeMahieu in Tulowitzki's absence.
"Any adversity like this, it makes a team stronger," right fielder Aaron Judge said. "Like I said the past couple of days, this is getting a lot of guys some valuable playing time. That's going to help us out.
"In spring training when we had all those guys in there, we told everybody that, 'Hey, everyone's going to make an impact on this team somehow. You don't know when your time's going to be called to step up and play for us. It could be the first week of the season, it could be in September. You just don't even know. So just stay ready.'"
